Amy Rees Anderson

Amy Rees Anderson

Every day we make choices. Some are minute. Some are major. Some choices we make without even consciously thinking about them. We are constantly making choices every second of every day:

We choose to get out of bed or not get out of bed. We chose to brush our teeth or not brush our teeth. We choose smile or we choose to frown. We choose to get offended or we choose to let it roll off our backs. We choose to hold a grudge or we choose to forgive. We choose to take time to help someone in need or we choose to rush by telling ourselves we are simply too busy to help. The list of choices we make each day goes on and on.

It is true that we may not choose or control is the things other people do or say to us, but we always choose the way we react to them. We always choose our own actions and behavior and response. We always have a choice. Always. True, we may not always choose every circumstance we find ourselves in, but we still always have a choice on how we will deal with things.

“We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. We always have the choice.” –Dalai Lama

One of the easiest traps to fall into is the trap of believing that you don’t always have a choice. Some people find themselves in circumstances so daunting that they begin to believe that they don’t have a choice and they allow themselves to feel helpless. The more helpless you allow yourself to believe you are, the more you become frozen from taking action to change your situation. You may not even realize you are doing it, but by allowing yourself to think you don’t have a choice, you are actually making a choice. Sure you may not be making it consciously, but the reality is that you are, in fact, making a choice.

It takes courage to take action. That is true. Sometimes it is scary and uncertain, but nothing in your life will change unless you make the choice to be proactive and take ownership for changing your own future. Don’t wait for someone else to make your life better, it is not their life, it is your life, and your future belongs to your choices and your choices only.

My little brother wrote a song once and in the song there is a particular line that I absolutely love. It say’s,

“Our world tomorrow holds what we’ve done today.” –Andrew Rees

If we want a better tomorrow then make the best choices we can today. Never lose sight of the fact that we always have a choice, and always try to make the right choice. If you have two good choices where one isn’t necessarily right and one wrong, then make the best choice you can with the knowledge and experience you have to draw upon. Then move forward with confidence and optimism. Don’t become frozen with fear of the unknown. For Heaven’s sake everything has elements of unknown, even those choices that seem to lead to a guaranteed outcome, because rarely is everything guaranteed to go as planned. At this point I would guess that all of us have learned that lesson the hard way. Life is never certain, so you have to learn to trust your instincts and have faith in your choices. Then move forward with them.

“Our choices have the undeniable power of transforming our lives.” -Jose A. Teixeira

If you are thinking to yourself, “what if I make a choice and it turns out to be wrong and I fail? Okay, so what? Learn from it, grow from it, get smarter from it, and then move forward knowing that at least you tried. At least you chose not to be a helpless victim. At least you took control and tried to do the right thing. At least you are trying to make your life better instead of choosing to do nothing. You are choosing to take charge of your life and you are choosing to become a better person with each choice you make. I would call that a success.

This is the start of a brand new week. Look at your life and decide what choices will make it better, then make them! Oh, and make the choice to do it with a SMILE!

8 Comments

Thanks for this great article. Indeed we always have a choice.at time we find ourselves at crossroads and we have to choose the right path, truly some choices are not easy to make and some are extremely difficult. The article clearly shows we have a choice. I will be Carey what I choose henceforth. Thank you, this is really inspiring

“It is true that we may not choose or control is the things other people do or say to us, but we always choose the way we react to them”

SO TRUE!!!

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes that I’ve had hanging at my desk at work for years, it’s helped me through a lot: “You have the power to choose how any situation effects you” ~ Charles Haanel

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